Oil and Drones in the Russian Ukraine War

By Matthew Grace

Ukraine reported that a successful drone attack on January 24^th, consisting of at least 121 drones, hit a Russian oil refinery and targeted Moscow, with Ukrainian claims to have damaged the Kremniy factory in Bryansk that produces missile components. The oil refinery station was in the Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow and the attack was one of the largest operations of its kind so far in the war. The Kremlin claimed it shot down 121 drones that had targeted 13 regions, but no other damage was reported beyond the refinery. A Russian retaliatory drone attack killed three Ukrainians in a residential area near Kyiv, but Ukraine managed to destroy 29 of the 58 Russian drones launched.

On January 29^th, Ukraine launched a second drone attack against Russia which successfully hit another oil refinery in Kstovo (500 miles from the frontline). Although debris fell from the industrial zone, no casualties have been reported by the Kremlin, though Governor Vasily Anokhin of the Smolensk region where the drones attacked, claimed that a “massive drone attack against civilian infrastructure had occurred” and one of the drones was “shot down when attempting to hit a nuclear power facility”. Western Media has not been able to verify this claim. The strikes on Kstovo, Smolensk, and Belgorod were elements of a broader attack which additionally forced Russian airports in St. Petersburg and Kazan to postpone flights for the night. The drone attacks this week are some of the largest Ukrainian drone operations ever conducted during the conflict which approaches its third year of fighting just as Russia makes small advances in the east of Ukraine towards the “strategically important city of Pokrovsk”, a logistics hub, and Ukraine continues its bite on Russian territory in the Kurk region which it has held onto since August.